


The Runaway Bride

by SigBerry



Category: Glee
Genre: AU, Crack, F/F, Faberry
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-07
Updated: 2017-03-08
Packaged: 2018-09-30 15:13:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 11,396
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10165727
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SigBerry/pseuds/SigBerry
Summary: Rachel is totally sure she's going to marry the love of her life. No doubts at all. But that choice doesn't seem to be in her hands anyway.AU based on the Doctor Who episode of the same name.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Wellwellwell... Here I go I wrote this for ff.net around 2012. Back then it was in my native language, Spanish, but I decided to translate it and see if it helps with my writer's block. So chances are you are going to see a garbage fic with a garbage translation. Oh well.
> 
> Also I don't have a beta, so expect a crap ton of mistakes.

It was time. No turning back.

Why would she want that? Rachel was going to marry the boy of her dreams. A little soon though, that was true.

Never too early for love, right?

_Yes, if you're in high school (Isn’t it “late”, anyway?)._

Nonsense. Besides, Finn is a great guy.

_Not all the time._

He's handsome.

_Freakishly tall. He has to stoop to kiss you._

He's big, he can protect me from bullies...

_Although he never has in the time that you’ve been together._

Well, he's a little distracted...

_A little? He’s missing more than a few marbles._

He’s charming, a good boyfriend.

_Devoid of ambition and more focused on himself..._

Rachel shook her head, trying to get that nagging voice out of her head that did nothing but fill her with doubts about something that inevitably would happen within mere minutes. She took a deep breath, and looked at her father, Leroy (her fathers had flipped a coin for the right of walking her down the aisle, and Leroy had won), who gave her a look that was something between disappointment and resignation. He tried to hide it behind a toothless smile and tight lips. That didn’t reassure her.

Without warning, they opened the doors of the room. She was not ready, but the show must go on. She smiled her best smile and started walking, watching the people who had gathered at such short notice. Her friends (the girls wearing their bridesmaids pink dresses), smiling uncomfortable and excited, like if the whole thing were another party or a joke. Two of her teachers (Mr. Schue and Sue Sylvester). Her other father and Finn's parents, with expressions similar to Leroy’s. And in the center of everyone, in front of the judge and looking at her with a hopeful, cheerful smile, was her fiancé. Finn Hudson. Rachel felt like something was missing.

Her smile faltered, but recovered in time. Her gait never stopped, even when the grip she had on her father's arm was probably cutting off his blood flow. He returned the gesture.

Suddenly, she began to feel something odd on her skin, but attributed it to nerves. Or at least she did until people began to look at her astonished. Her father released her, looking scared, and that's when the pain started. It seemed as if every cell of her skin was on fire. She looked down and saw how her skin had started to glow with a golden light.

She screamed. She screamed with all the power of her lungs and everything went black.

 

When she came around, she was not in the chapel. She didn’t know where she was. The place was spacious and illuminated with a blue light. It was a circular shaped room, apparently. She could hear the hum of machinery, almost like a purr. The floor seemed to be made of glass, and through it she could see mechanisms and lights. She looked at the ceiling and saw that it was dome-shaped, covered in cables. There were columns with odd shapes surrounding her, and when she turned around she saw what had to be the center of all the machinery she heard, some kind of console, with transparent and luminous column that rose from the center to the ceiling.

Also, she saw someone.

“What the...?”

A girl. She couldn’t be much older than her. At least she didn’t appear to be. She had short blond hair, somewhat disheveled. She wore a white shirt with a black vest, from which protruded a blue tie underneath and khaki pants that appeared to be slightly larger than they should. She wore what looked like a corsage on one side of the vest. She was sitting on a railing and, until she realized that Rachel was there, had been examining and illuminating a little device with some kind of blue light.

“What the...?” she repeated.

Rachel was still incredibly confused, dizzy and, she thought, about to pass out from her... Trip? What had happened?

“Uh...” she murmured, unsure under the scrutiny she was being subjected to.

“Who are you? What are you doing here?”

“Uh...”

Her eyes followed the stranger as she surrounded her, frowning and examining her from top to bottom. She felt like an experiment, rather than as someone who got lost somehow.

“You couldn’t simply have entered through the door, it’s physically impossible, given our location ... The TARDIS wouldn’t let you... Would it?” She turned to the controls and moved a couple of levers, almost at random, and picked up a screen, watching it closely “Nah, you couldn’t. The very idea is absurd.”

She went back to walk in circles around her. Suddenly, she stopped and grabbed her face closer until both could breathe the same air. Rachel held her breath as the girl looked at her straight in the eyes, first one and then the other. She turned her head from side to side, up and then pointed the little light blue that emitted sounds into her eyes, blinding her momentarily.

“Hey!” Rachel exclaimed, breathing finally and slapping her hands away. The girl didn’t seem to hear, focused now on her flashlight-like thing “Who are YOU? How did you get me here? What is that?”

“You're human...” She looked at her curiously, and again approached her, taking her wrists and observing them individually “You have no teleportation device ... Although, as I said, it wouldn’t be able to cross the barriers of the TARDIS and...” She stopped suddenly and seemed to truly see her, as a person and not as an object to be studied

“Who are you?” She whispered.

Rachel got away again, almost absently, and smoothed her dress. She realized then, almost stupidly, that she was clad in a wedding dress and was going to marry. Well, not anymore. Now she was ... She didn’t know where she was. She’d ask later, now she had to answer.

Or not. She didn’t have to. She’d just go, forget everything, and... Continue with the wedding?

“Rachel, Rachel Berry” she offered her hand, but the girl just kept staring, like a puzzle she had to solve. Not as hard as before, but... She withdrew her hand. “Who...?”

“Well, Rachel Berry, how did you get here?”

“Weren’t you...? I don’t know. That was precisely what I wanted to ask, I’m sure it was your fault”.

“Mine? Why?”

“I don’t know, you're just so strange, and you have all these devices... I’m sure you’ve done something” Rachel said, pointing a weak, accusing finger at her. The girl looked at her, raising an eyebrow “Well, anyway, you've made it very clear that I shouldn’t be here” she said, looking around until she found a wooden door. She walked toward it “I'd better go and...”

“No! Wait!”

She ignored her and kept walking. She was in no mood for a kidnapping. She opened the door and...

Almost fell into the void.

In front of her laid darkness populated with stars, colors and infinite wonder. She stood there, speechless. She felt her companion look too, over her shoulder. Taking a deep breath, Rachel found the words.

“It must be an illusion, a trick, or...”

“No.” She replied, almost cheerfully “We're in space.”

“Oh.” She muttered, as if it were the most normal thing in the world “And you are...”

“I'm the Doctor”

She looked at her.

“Doctor... Who?”

“Just the Doctor.”

The Doctor, or whatever it was, wasn’t even looking at her. She wandered her eyes over the show that was spreading in front of them, showing a smirk. Almost smug. If Rachel had not been so overwhelmed by everything that had happened in such a small space of time, she would have thought her hostess was, in fact, very beautiful. But this wasn’t a time for such considerations.

“But it isn’t cold. And we can breathe. And, how could this place be in space?”

“Well, technically...” She looked at Rachel, who now frowned even more deeply “Okay. We are in my spaceship, the TARDIS”

“Spaceship? But these things don’t happen. Aliens do not exist, no matter what Sam says. You're not going to say now that you're...”

The Doctor said nothing, watching with her with a small smile on her face. A moment later she raised her eyebrows.

“... Oh” She was not like what she had seen on TV. Maybe it was an illusion “And your ship has a door…” she knocked on it “… made of wood?”

“That’s part of a camouflage mechanism. It was blocked in that appearance in the sixties, but it is a solid ship.”

“And the breathing with the door open?”

“The TARDIS protects us. And it has a good heating system.”

There was silence again. Rachel didn’t know what to say and she wanted to sit down more than anything. She felt as if her knees were going to give up in any moment. Shivering, she turned from the door and leaned against a railing that was a few feet away.

“Are you okay?” the Doctor asked, standing in front of her.

“... I don’t know. All of this is so... Surreal. It can’t be true. It’s not possible.”

The girl looked around and ended up looking at the ground, giving it a slight kick.

“Seems quite real to me.”

“Well, never mind” Rachel said weakly “I should go back.”

“Should you?”

“I think so.” she looked at the Doctor, who stared back at her with raised eyebrows “Can I?”

“I could give you a ride, yes. It wasn’t me who brought you here, after all.”

“No?”

She shrugged and turned back to the controls.

“Where are you from?”

“Lima, Ohio, United States, Earth.”

The Doctor looked at her without saying anything.

“What? Well, you're a ... Alien?” She nodded “You are an alien in the middle of space on a ship with wooden doors. You can’t be the only form of extraterrestrial life with human form. How would you guess that I'm from Earth only from my looks?”

“Very clever. Misguided, but at least you try. I like it.“ Rachel blushed, but tried to look indignant “What if you were then ones who have alien form?” 

“Huh?”

“Nothing ... Well, LimaOhioUnitedEstatesEarth.” Said the Doctor in a breath and started pulling levers and pushing buttons, again as if she were doing it at random.

Suddenly, Rachel had to grab whatever she had nearer to her to keep from falling, then without warning the place... _The ship_ tilted to one side. If she could avoid falling because of the shock from the trip, she wasn’t going to be able to avoid falling now with the movement of the ship.

As soon as it began, it ended, but not peacefully. By the blow, it seemed they had made a forced landing.

“We have arrived.”

“Already?”

“Yes, we weren’t very far from here.”

“Ah. I imagined that space travels woud be a little more...”

“Slow?”

“Stable.”

“Ah.” she frowned, annoyed “Have you ever been in a spaceship?”

“No, but...”

“Then you don’t know how they are.”

She opened his mouth to respond but closed it again immediately. She couldn’t fight that logic. Without saying anything, she shrugged and headed for the door. She stopped when she put her hand on the doorknob and looked over her shoulder at the Doctor, who looked at her with a small smile and nodded. She opened the door and found herself in the middle of the football field.

“I am back.”

“Yep.” Rachel jumped slightly at the unexpected appearance. Yes, the girl was a few feet away, but she didn’t expect to be followed. The Doctor was now wearing a hat pulled down over the disheveled blond hair “McKinley High School” she read, squinting “Do you come here?”

But Rachel wasn’t listening. She had seen where they came from.

“Wait a minute!” she yelled. The Doctor looked startled at the sudden change of tone “This is your ship?!”

“...Yes.”

Rachel gasped, looking at the innocent phone booth. She circled it. She rapped at it, checking that it was wooden. She walked through the door, finding the familiar circular room.

“It’s bigger on the inside!”

“I get that a lot.” said the Doctor, with an amused smile. “Well, do you come here?”

“...Yeah, well, it's my school, but it was not the place I had to go to right now... I thought you'd leave.”

“What? Oh, no! A girl appears out of nowhere in the TARDIS on a wedding dress. I have to figure out what's going on.”

“Does my dress matter?”

“No.”

“So?”

“I don’t know. It’s not the normal thing to wear, right? Or do you just like it?"

They began to walk across the field.

“What? No, of course not! I was going to... get married. Who would wear a wedding dress all the time?

“It takes all sorts. Also, get married? Aren’t you a little young?”

“W-well, it's never too early, right?”

“Isn’t it late?”

“Whatever!” she stopped walking and looked around “Wait, where are we going?”

“I don’t know. Where are we going?”

“I have to go to the chapel. I guess they are all there.”

“Well, I guess you know where it is. Guide me.”

“You own a spaceship and you want to walk there?”

“Right. The ship.”

She retraced her steps with long strides and opened the door of the TARDIS with a quick yank, giving way to a cloud of smoke. She closed it again quickly. Then opened it again and tried to enter, but went out again, coughing and fanning herself with her hat.

“Looks like your appearance overloaded it.”

“Me? How?”

“I don’t know! Tell me how you've teleported and then I will be able to tell you how you drove my TARDIS crazy.”

“I told you, I don’t know. Half an hour ago I didn’t even know that aliens or spaceships existed.”

The Doctor looked at her thoughtfully for a moment, and then the TARDIS. She turned to her and pointed at her with the blue flashlight.

“What are you doing? What is that?”

“Sonic screwdriver. It does… stuff.”

Rachel looked at her without saying anything. The Doctor stared back at her screwdriver.

“You're as ordinary as before.”

“Hey!”

“What? It's a good thing! ...I guess. Nothing out of the ordinary. Although being different it’s also more fun.”

“Is everyone from your kind as direct as you?”

The Doctor's mood changed immediately, changing her amused expression for a more somber one. Rachel could have imagined it, because the next second she had recovered her usual expression. She shrugged one shoulder.

“No.” she said simply, without looking at her. Rachel decided not to ask. “We'll have to walk. The TARDIS will take an hour or two to recover. How far is this chapel?”

“A little.”

“Well, the sooner we get moving, the sooner we arrive. But ... Weren’t you going to get married?”

Rachel checked her watch. It had been about thirty minutes since their turn. And Finn already said it: it was now or never. She didn’t think the boy could be so definitive and he surely would want to try one more time, so there wouldn’t be real harm.

“I guess not anymore.”

They began to walk, one next to the other. They were silent for a while, looking straight ahead and ignoring the bystanders who were watching them curiously.

Rachel could barely put her thoughts in order. A phone booth shaped spaceship. An alien from God-knew-where that looked like an attractive girl. Teleportation. Wedding. She felt dizzy. She decided to distract herself.

“You said something before...”

“Hm?” She turned to face her. The sun made her squint.

“That being different was more fun.”

“And it is, right?” she raised her eyebrows questioningly.

“No.”

“Oh?”

“I am... Different. Even if you say that I am ordinary. I don’t wear normal clothes, and I guess I'm a bit bossy and overconfident.” she said, looking down. She tried to keep her hands moving on both sides of her body and not to twist the cloth. If she was supposed to go through it a second time...

“I haven’t seen that.”

“Well, I'm in shock.”

“I see.” replied the Doctor with a smile. Was she picking on her? She chose to ignore her.

“Well, what I was saying is that being different is not fun. People pick on me. They throw me slushies. I’m proud of how I am and of my talent, but it’s not a fun life.

“Humans.” she scoffed “Always looking to be special, but when they find someone who is different they condemn them.” She said with her lips pursed in disgust “Don’t worry. People always end in their rightful place. If you really have talent in whatever...”

“I sing.”

The Doctor gave her a bright smile before continuing.

“If you really have it, you'll go far. And probably, they won’t... Is that the chapel?

“Yes, but it's been too long since I disappeared. I don’t think they are still there.”

“Well, what now?”

“We made reservations at a small restaurant for after the wedding. A small celebration.”

The girl kept looking at her expectantly.

“Follow me.” Said Rachel “The restaurant is close.”

 

When they entered the small area separated by screens that the staff had prepared for the event, she found a welter of voices, all talking at the same time. Everyone was sitting and eating. They looked worried, but more focused on the free food. Of course, her close friends, the two sets of parents and her elegant groom seemed to be contacting the army if necessary to find her... Except for the elegant groom. Finn just ate mechanically, looking forward and scowling, with a expression of confusion. In the background she could hear the radio coming out from the speakers lined in the wall, but she couldn’t distinguish what was playing above the noise. Rachel cleared her throat, and everything seemed to stop.

In the blink of an eye, her two parents had pulled her into a choking hug and everyone started to talk at once:

“Honey, you had us so worried...”

“Don’t do that ever again!”

“What a way to escape!”

“Hey, you don’t mind that we came here without you, right?”

“Rachel, if you wanted to leave me, you could—I can change...”

“Where have you been?”

“How did you do that? I mean, I could use that when...”

Rachel tried to locate each of the voices and understand, but she just couldn’t. All she had managed to assimilate was the ridiculous idea Finn had of her disappearing on purpose to leave him, and what her parents were screaming in her ear. She tried to raise her voice.

“Guys…? Excuse me. Hey!”

But there was no way. Suddenly, a sharp, loud whistle cut through the noise, effectively ending it. She turned to look at the Doctor, who had two fingers in her mouth and watched her with a raised eyebrow. She turned to the crowd, but right then she wasn’t pay attention to it, but to her companion. Her father, Hiram, was the first to speak.

“Rachel, sweetheart, who is your companion?”

“Oh! Where are my manners?” She gestured to the girl “This is the Doctor.”

“Doctor what?” Asked Kurt. Rachel didn’t say anything and just looked at her. She frowned slightly at her before turning to answer the crowd.

“Just the Doctor.”

“You must have a name.”

“No.”

There was an awkward silence.

“Well!” said her other father “And what is this… Doctor doing here?

“She found me.”

“Where? Where did you go? We thought the worst.”

“Er... I don’t know. But the Doctor found me and brought me back.”

“And we have to thank her.” her parents turned to the Doctor “Thank you.”

The Doctor ran a hand over her head, taking her hat off while on it.

“You’re welcome, I guess.”

Rachel turned to the expectant crowd, with the biggest smile she could summon.

“Let’s eat!”

 

They sat down to eat, all the guests and the Doctor, who joined cheerfully. Mrs. Sylvester wasn’t present. Rachel was told that, seeing that it was all a huge waste of time, she had returned to her home to design a new strategy to win the national cheerleading competition that year. Rachel almost was glad for her absence. 

The gathering became what would any normal meeting would be, with talks unfolding around her, and Rachel was immensely grateful for it. She needed that normality. Her parents were at her right, the Doctor sat in front of her and Finn to her left. The boy seemed to be still quite confused about what happened.

“So... It wasn’t that you've decided to do like Julia Roberts and flee from the wedding, right?”

Rachel stifled an exasperated noise.

“No, Finn. It was an accident. Kind of. I don’t know what happened.”

“Oh...”

The Doctor gave her a puzzled look from the other side of the table and returned to the conversation with her parents, who seemed to be telling her in great detail about her disappearance.

“I had her arm hanging on mine, and I could feel how her skin was heating up” said Leroy.

“Yes, yes. And she began to glow with a golden light. We know that our Rachel is a star, but not to that extent…” continued Hiram with a chuckle.

“And the next thing we know, she was gone! She became a golden glow that rose to the ceiling and through it, and Rachel was gone.”

“In part it was a blessing. That wedding was an insanity...”

The Doctor listened with an amused smile.

“Do you happen to have a video of the ceremony?”

“Oh, no.” Leroy sighed. “We didn’t think it was a memory worth of her memorabilia, between her great achievements, like when she won that singing competition with only a few months.”

“I recorded it.”

They turned to see Jacob Ben Israel, who seemed to have appeared out of nowhere, half behind a screen, with his camera in hand.

“Jacob!” exclaimed indignantly Rachel “You weren’t even invited!”

“That doesn’t mean the end of my obligation to collect information about my beloved Rachel Berry. You’ll appreciate it when you have to write your autobiography.”

Rachel considered it for a moment, but recovered in time to say:

“You are still not invited! And stop following me!” she nudged her fiancé, hoping for him to stop eating and defend her.

“Uh... Yeah, Jacob! Leave Rachel alone.”

“Quick thinking, Finnesa” that should be Santana.

Rachel rolled her eyes.

“Now, be kind enough to leave so we can...” she began, but was interrupted by the Doctor.

“Wait, can I see that video?”

Rachel looked at her quizzically.

“I'm supposed to find out what happened, aren’t I?” Said the Doctor, noting her gaze “It’s better if I see it for myself, to know what happened. Besides, it’s not like the explanation of the witnesses was helpful” her parents let out an outraged sound. “Okay, okay, a little helpful.”

She got up from the table, followed by Rachel, and snatched the camera from Jacob, who emitted an annoyed noise that everyone ignored. She fiddled with the camera until she displayed the screen and looked for the right time. Rachel put a hand on her back and rose on the balls of her feet, looking over her shoulder. The quality of the video was surprisingly good, considering that Jacob must have been hiding. The camera was facing the aisle, possibly from a corner of the room. There were leaves in the foreground, so she assumed that Jacob was behind a plant. The Rachel in the screen was walking slowly, brandishing her fakest smile, then she came to a halt, released her father, screamed, and disappeared into golden lights. Seeing it affected her almost as much as living it.

“That’s it!” exclaimed the Doctor, taking her out of her reverie “But ... It’s not possible. Huon particles!”

“What?” Rachel asked.

“Huon particles. They produce energy. Large quantities. You must have these particles in you.” she finished, examining her again with the screwdriver. “The wedding nerves, the adrenaline... They must have activate them, and the power of the TARDIS drawn you in. The ship didn’t detect the threat because, well, they are primitive! My people stopped using them long ago.”

“Why? If they produce that much energy...”

“We got rid of them.”

“Why?” Rachel insisted.

The Doctor frowned.

“You make a lot of questions” she received a shrug from Rachel and sighed. Suddenly her expression darkened. “Because... They were lethal.”

“Oh …” Rachel felt too weak to stand, so she sat down in the nearest chair. Scarcely realized that everyone had returned to their conversations and meals. Her fathers watched them from the other side of the table, but she didn’t think they were receiving a lot of information, or that the understood it “Can you do anything?”

The Doctor didn’t change her expression. She scratched his neck.

“Maybe... If I knew how they came to you, I could...”

A chorus of voices stopped interrupted her. The guests were silent as they looked again at the same point of the room. Blocking off the exit of the reserved area, a group of Warblers were singing a long note and perfectly harmonized, while raising their arms to the sides. They finished the note perfectly in sync and showing identical smiles. They said nothing more. The silence lasted for a while, everyone looking at the singers, who didn’t look at anyone and simply stood there, with perfect show faces, hands clasped behind their back, feet separated. Kurt, bless him, broke the heavy silence.

“Blaine!” He said, throwing his arms around his boyfriend “I didn’t know you invited your friends to sing at the wedding! And without Sebastian!”

Blaine looked at him, confused, smoothing down his bow tie.

“I didn’t call anyone.”

Just then, the Warblers started to sing the same note again, each one of them raising an arm in front of them. People kept staring perplexed. It wasn’t even a song. With a clicking sound, the hands separated from the wrists, as if they had a hinge. Everyone let out a gasp, except for the Doctor, who had the screwdriver in one hand and her brow deeply furrowed.

Without their voices hesitating in their tone, The Warblers opened fire with machine guns apparently hidden in their arms. The guests shouted and tried to get away.

“Down!” the Doctor shouted, wrapping an arm around Rachel's waist and dragging her behind a table that someone had knocked over. The Doctor looked around and noticed the wall speakers. Then she looked around to find a waiter who was with them when the attack began and now he was sitting in fetal position with the tray covering his head. “Hey” the Doctor shouted, grabbing his shoulder and shaking him lightly. The waiter looked at her. He seemed on the verge of tears.

“They don’t pay me enough for this” he sobbed.

“I know, buddy. What's your name?” Rachel couldn’t believe it. Bullets flew over their heads and she decided to chitchat?

“John.” said the waiter.

“John what?”

“John Smith.”

“Nice name! Well, John. You have to tell me to what are the speakers connected.”

“Uh...” He looked at her with confusion “We have a music system under the counter at the entrance.”

“Thanks, John!” She took Rachel's hand and ran, knocking one of the screens, towards the entrance.

Rachel realized that she maybe should have changed her clothes and shoes into something more comfortable if she had to run after the Doctor. She shook her head. What a time to think about things like that.

When they reached the entrance, they discovered that everyone who was out of the reserved area had fled the restaurant, so they didn’t see anyone behind the counter. The Doctor looked around and found a small music system. She pointed the screwdriver to the machine, fumbled a couple of buttons and then turned the screwdriver to another speaker that was next to the computer. Before pressing anything else, she turned to Rachel.

“Maybe you should cover your ears.”

Confused, Rachel did as the Doctor suggested, who gave her a smile before pressing a button on the screwdriver. And Rachel welcomed the suggestion. Out of every speaker in the restaurant came a sharp and constant noise. She turned her gaze to the reserved area, where the Warblers (who didn’t see them leaving) had stopped their attack and singing to put their hands over their ears, twist their bodies as if they were in pain, and finally fall. The noise stopped.

“Um...” Rachel muttered “What happened?” The Doctor didn’t seem to hear her. Her brow furrowed and her eyes seemed to glow with anger. She was muttering to herself, although Rachel could hear her clearly.

“Sending androids to a crowded party, to shoot just because, who could...?”

She went back to the reserved area, again taking Rachel's hand and walking with long strides. Rachel’s heart dropped to the floor when they arrived. It seemed like no one died, fortunately, but there were a few wounded, clutching various body parts and everyone, without fail, showed similar expressions of fear and confusion (Kurt almost seemed to demand explanations from Blaine).

Her hand dropped the Doctor’s, who knelt beside the "androids", and patted her dress in search of her cell phone. Then she remembered that the dress had no pockets, so she went to the reception and called 911. On her return, she saw that the Doctor hadn’t moved. She was examining now the head of one of the Warblers with the screwdriver. Even knowing they were androids, she couldn’t help feeling a little perturbed at the sight of an apparently human head severed from his body and into the hands of someone. She knelt beside the Doctor.

“What happened?” she asked again.

“Scavenger androids. Probably chasing what's inside of you”.

She felt how the lump on her throat tightened more and more.

“Oh ... So it was my fault?”

“What?” The Doctor seemed truly surprised “Oh, no! Of course not! Blame whoever sent these stupid machines in search of the particles” she raised her head and looked around until her eyes fell on Finn, who was the closest to where she was. He had been watching them with a look of utter confusion on his face, and had been curled up next to a plant since the attack “You!” she exclaimed “Give me your phone.”

“Why...?”

“Just give it to me.”

He lent it over shakily, she took it from his hands abruptly and returned to examine the remains. Rachel approached Finn.

“How are you, Finn?” she asked, putting a hand on his shoulder.

“I... I don’t know. I don’t know what is happening. First you stood me up at the altar and your parents seemed to be happy, then you come with that weird girl, now we are attacked by Blaine's friends and... I don’t know.”

Rachel didn’t know what to say, so she just patted his back and sat with him.

“That’s odd.”

Rachel looked up, and saw the Doctor pointing her screwdriver into the phone.

“What?”

“The androids’ signal. The one controlling them. It comes from your school. Does anyone hate you in school?”

“Everyone” said the rest of the club in unison.

Rachel repressed a hurt expression and looked at Finn, hoping that he’d defend her. The boy continued to stare into the space. The Doctor rolled her eyes.

“But if you had to suspect from someone. Someone who is able to kill and command droids...”

“Sue Sylvester.” they said this time.

The Doctor looked at her, waiting for her opinion. Rachel cleared her throat.

“Well, if I had to think of someone to secretly be an evil genius...” she murmured thoughtfully “...But, I don’t know, she has never shown signs of being an alien! Something like that would be noticeable, right?”

“She may not be an alien.”

“But it would be something you would notice, right?”

The Doctor looked at her without saying anything.

“...Right?”  
She shrugged.

“Well, how about if we go and see what we find out at McKinley?”

“I’m in” Rachel said instantaneously. Finn chose to get out of his stupor right after.

“What? But, Rachel... You should stay here, safe from the robots. With me...” he said from his position on the floor.

Rachel blinked.

“Well, it was the Doctor the one who protected me back then. I think it would be wise to stay with her.”

Finn stood up abruptly and walked towards her, knocking over a chair in the process.

“You don’t even know her.” he smiled, as if saying something obvious and that Rachel couldn’t realize.

“But she saved me.”

Finn frowned, trying to think. While he did that, Rachel glanced at the Doctor, who had an expression on her face that was something between disbelief and slight disgust.

“Well.” Finn said, catching their attention again. “Then I'll go with you.”

Rachel widened her eyes, surprised by the proposal.

“I'm your fiancé, I will... Protect you.” He finished, puffing out his chest.

She looked back at the Doctor, who shook her head from back and forth subtly.

“Uh... Finn, I don’t think...”

“I'm your fiancé.” he repeated, as if that said enough.  
With a sigh, the Doctor took a step forward, standing beside him.

“If the giant wants to come, then he can. Guess he knows what he’s doing.” without adding more, she took her hat and walked to the door

“See?” Finn said “She wants me to go.”

Rachel followed the Doctor, rolling her eyes. On the way, she asked for the car keys to her father. She had walked enough on those shoes when the TARDIS broke.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> And the resolution is here.

Finn apparently felt that it was his mission to be in charge of filling the silence in the car with a nervous chatter from his position in the passenger seat. He talked about the wedding, about plans to do it again, how they should do if after Nationals (it was only right, according to him, because this time was set after Regionals), about classes on Monday and future plans. Rachel's head was spinning, and the Doctor was staring out the window of the back seat quietly. At some point, Finn leaned to her with conspiratorial air.

  
“So... What’s her deal?” he murmured from the corner of his mouth, with a not-so-subtle nod towards the Doctor. Rachel was sure she could hear them perfectly “Robots, aliens, those weird particles... She’s a bit crazy, isn’t she?”

  
“You saw the same thing as I did!” _Well, not everything_ , she thought. “It seems quite real to me.”

Finn winced and looked forward. The rest of the way was quiet.

The school was deserted, as expected. There was just some janitor mopping the floor, who ignored them when they walked briskly into Mrs. Sylvester’s office. They found it empty, also as expected. Rachel knew she had been told that Sue had gone home, but didn’t trust her luck, so she sighed in relief when they found the office empty (but that didn’t stop her of being wary with every step).

  
“Wow,” said the Doctor, “look at all these trophies.”

“Yeah, Mrs. Sylvester doesn’t accept defeat that easily.” Rachel said. “I think she has a lot more at home.”

The Doctor muttered an "oh" and turned to the computer. 

“I'll see what I can find here. You two can look around the office.” 

Finn turned around a few times, without really knowing what to do, and Rachel went to a file cabinet behind the desk. She opened the top drawer, and saw that there were reports of the cheerleaders. She took the first one (about some girl named Sally, Rachel remembered her as one of her bullies). There was a big, red stamp that said "APT" at the beginning of the document. The rest was a detailed description of what Sally could do and her physique. 

“Wow... It’s very thorough.” Rachel muttered to herself. 

“What was that?” the Doctor asked, removing her eyes from the screen. 

“This report of one of the cheerleaders. It’s incredibly detailed.” 

“Oh...”

Rachel looked for Santana’s then, mostly out of curiosity. 

It also had detailed information about Santana, but at the end of it, Mrs. Sylvester had added with red ink "attitude problems" and, right next to that, a stamp of "UNFIT". Then she checked Brittany’s. It had the same stamp as Santana. 

“Huh...” Rachel muttered. All the other documents appeared to follow the same pattern of apts and unfits, with reasons added to the rejected. But unfit for what? They were cheerleaders already, what else did they need? Did these documents decide who went to the competitions? Was that thorough physical study necessary? One never knew with Mrs. Sylvester. 

She was selecting folders to show them to the Doctor when the sound of the screwdriver pulled her out of her thoughts. It was pointed towards the computer tower and it apparently worked, because, without the Doctor touch anything, the monitor showed several windows opening on the screen. More documents, lists, records. Instantly, the girl saved the screwdriver in his vest pocket and began to type quickly. Rachel feared for the keyboard. 

She glanced at the documents in her hands and sighed. Surely they would have nothing to do with the case and would be unimportant to the Doctor, so she put them back in the file and went to look over her shoulder. 

“Aha” the Doctor whispered to herself. 

“Hm?”

“I just found your particles” she said, turning to Rachel with a smile on her face and pointing to a document on the screen. Formulas, equations... Rachel didn’t understand a thing. Feeling her confusion, the Doctor returned her gaze to the screen and explained as she read. “She seems to have managed to cram the particles in a liquid that can enter the body both ingested and through topical use,” raised a hand and pointed it with the other “through the skin.”

The Doctor kept reading and drummed her fingers on the table, frustrated. Rachel was genuinely surprised. She thought they were on the wrong track, or just following the advice of a group of people who did not get along with Mrs. Sylvester, but if everything turned out to be true... 

“But how did they get into you?”

She turned to the desk drawers and opened them one by one, finding protein powder, shakes and office supplies. The bottom drawer, however, was locked. The Doctor huffed and took out the sonic screwdriver. She pointed it to the lock and turned it on until they heard a click. Rachel was amazed. As if she knew, the Doctor gave her a smug smile. 

“Useful, huh?” 

It was a spacious drawer designed to hold files and folders, but instead of that there was just a pocket-sized book. Not just any book: "Sue’s Journal." 

“Aha” repeated the Doctor. She opened it and left room for Rachel to look. Right on the cover of the journal, they could see a list titled as "DNA of a champion" followed by words like Strength, Competition, Determination and Win, but it also had formulas here and there. 

“She's a very aggressive person.” said the Doctor. “Apart from formulas and diatribes about the importance of winning at any cost, there are many hate messages” she grimaced. “Especially against a man named William Schuester... And his hair.” 

“Yeah... He’s our choir director. Mrs. Sylvester never took very well that he removed part of her cheerleading money for the Glee club. I always thought she was a little out of it, but…”

“That's it!” The Doctor interrupted sharply, rising and taking her shoulders “I know how she gave you the particles. You said they threw you slushies, right? It's a drink, am I right?”

“Yes. It's basically ice with a lot of colorants.”

“Whatever. Sue herself directed the attacks. Prepared slushies especially for you with a dose of particles.”

“But... I always wash. Immediately after.”

“It does not matter! She made the formula so that, even though the ice stays on your skin, the particles are absorbed instantly.”

“And... What for? Why me?” 

The Doctor frowned, as if she had forgotten that detail. Shee sat down, somewhat deflated, and returned her attention to the journal, turning pages quickly. 

“There is nothing about that. In fact what I told you is the only thing that makes sense about a plan. If she has a plan. She’s very unstable. Everything else...” she picked the journal and went through the pages quickly “does not make sense. I will look on the computer again to see if…”

A great noise as of heavy machinery and clicking interrupted her. They both looked at Finn, having forgotten about him, who was moving away from the shelf of trophies quickly. On the floor a hatch opened with a ladder deployed under. They tore their gaze away from it and looked at Finn again.

“I... I haven’t done anything! Just ... She told us to look around or something like that and I didn’t know what to do, because I'm just putting my muscles in this mission, y’know?” Rachel saw the Doctor raising an eyebrow from the corner of her eye “So I just looked at the trophies. I tried to pick one, but it didn’t move. I pulled harder and the floor opened and…”

Finn paused, looking quickly from one girl to the other, moving his arms slightly, back and forth, a little nervous. Rachel, still looking puzzled, turned to the Doctor. If she kept doing that, her eyebrow would get lost in her hair. She seemed to be deliberating something, looking intently at Finn, making him even more nervous. Finally, she relaxed her face and gave a small smile to Rachel. 

“Looks like your giant has proven useful after all” she said approaching the trapdoor. Rachel turned to look at Finn, who had sighed in relief at being free from the scrutiny of the Doctor. Noticing Rachel’s gaze, he returned it and smiled. The girl forced a smile in return. From the corner of her eye she could see how the Doctor crouched beside the hole in the ground, and turned to face her when she heard her sniffing the air.

“What... ?” Rachel started to ask. 

“It doesn’t seem to be a new tunnel” again, the Doctor seemed to be speaking more to herself than to her. She laid on the floor face down, and put her head through the hatch, holding her hat in one hand. She looked both ways. It may have had another use in some other time. Hence this smell...” she drew back her head with a look of slight disgust “...Of being closed. Rancid. Mrs. Sylvester must have rehabilitated it for her purposes. I'll go down first.” 

“What?! We are going to go down there?” blurted Rachel. 

“Of course. We must stop whatever she’s doing. Or at least find out what she’s doing. I'll go down first,” she repeated, “then you, and then the giant” that last part was just an echo, as she had already begun to go down the ladder. Rachel followed, scrambling to get the dress through the hole (she should have changed, she thought). Gentle hands on her hips helped her down the last few steps. Finn went down soon after, almost slipping on the metal steps as his shoes (and suit) were the ones from the wedding too. He straightened up and dusted himself off, trying to hide the fear. 

“Do you think it will be a long tunnel?” Rachel asked the Doctor. 

“I think there is no way of knowing, but look! Transport” she answered smiling, pointing over Rachel's shoulder. She and Finn turned and found a golf cart, like the ones the school’s coaches had to go through the track. 

Maybe it was the one coaches used. Maybe it was the reason it had disappeared two years ago. 

The Doctor took the wheel and Rachel sat beside her, leaving Finn the back seat. The cart was put in motion. The Doctor didn’t seem to be watching where they were going, rather the walls and ceiling. Fearing for the safety of the vehicle, Rachel felt she was responsible for paying attention to the road that lay ahead. 

“Look at those wires” the other girl said quietly “ They are much newer than this tunnel. Large and numerous.” She almost could hear a tone of admiration on her voice. “Whatever Sue Sylvester has at the end of this tunnel, it has to be big.”  


The tunnel turned out to be quite long and it descend slightly. Rachel was grateful that the cart was there. They travelled the rest of the way in silence. Not even Finn could think of a subject to discuss. 

At last they came to a heavy-looking metal dool, protected by a key pad. The Doctor immediately jumped from the cart and tried to turn the handle, but it was obviously closed. She used the sonic screwdriver on the key pad until they heard a heavy clang, alerting them that the door was open. 

They opened it slowly, listening to the creaking they were causing. Rachel mentally thanked Mrs. Sylvester for going home. Otherwise, if she was in her "secret base", the noise they were making would have alerted her of their presence. 

They walked through the door with slow steps. It was a huge room. Kind of like a warehouse. Rachel could not believe that something like this could be below the school, and wondered what would be its use before Mrs. Sylvester turned it into whatever it was now. They could see huge machines, lights and chemicals. There were also some kind of opaque booths lined up along the walls, all connected to another capsule, more translucent, which was right in the middle of the room. 

Some of the machines had large tubes connected to them, filled with a clear liquid, bubbling as if it was boiling. The Doctor rapped one of those tubes a few knocks and turned to Rachel. 

“See? This proves my theory.” 

Rachel didn’t see how, but the Doctor was in motion immediately. She pulled a clossed vial out of one of the machines, filled with transparent liquid. Then she came over to Rachel and pointed her screwdriver at the little bottle. Rachel could see how the liquid seemed to move and shine. At the same time, she could feel the familiar burning sensation on her skin. She looked at her hands and there was the golden glow. Rachel gasped and the Doctor quickly stopped whatever she was doing.

“Huon particles” she said simply. “I don’t know what Sylvester intends to do with them, but she needs you to catalyze them.”

Rachel wanted to say something, but someone beat her to it. 

"What are you doing in my lab?!” Cried a dominant voice. They stopped short and Rachel took refuge clinging to the Doctor’s vest from behind. 

The Doctor took a small step to the side, hiding Rachel some more behind herself. Rachel was more than a little frightened and appreciated the gesture, but the Doctor only had (apparently) the sonic screwdriver. Sue (apparently) had killer robots. She didn’t think the scales were in their favor. 

She turned to Finn, who was still behind her, visibly trembling and trying to look as small as possible. 

“We got lost” the Doctor said with a pleasant tone. Mrs. Sylvester squinted and raised an eyebrow, making it clear that she did not believe a word. 

“Do you take me for a fool?” She said. 

“Oh, well” the Doctor shrugged. “ You can’t blame me for trying, right?” 

Sue said nothing. She walked up to a control panel and pressed a couple of buttons. Right then, six Warblers entered through a side door. They were identical to those who had attacked them at the restaurant: impeccable suit, big smiles, gelled hair and lifeless eyes. Rachel suppressed a shudder. 

“Wait, wait! I have a question. How did you get here? You obviously had to come after us, or you would have heard the terrible noise when we opened the door. It’s been a few minutes before you finally appeared. And besides, we took the cart, so if you came walking you would have taken much longer. So how did you find us?” 

The woman pursed her lips, as if torn between finishing things quickly or answering. She chose the latter, judging by how she removed her hand from the panel that controlled the Warblers. Rachel sighed with relief. They had more time. Although she didn’t know how they could use it. 

“Who are you?” Asked Mrs. Sylvester. 

“The Doctor. Just the Doctor. Nice to meet you.” she replied, smiling coldly. 

“Well, Doctor. The answer is simple. There is another door” she said, jerking her thumb towards a corner of the room, where they could see a ladder going up to the roof, where there was another hatch. 

“Oooh” said the Doctor. 

“And, if I may” muttered Rachel. It seemed that Sue almost smiled at her. She did not like the glint in her eyes, “What is it with the Warblers? I thought they were, well, flesh and blood normal guys.”

“Oh, some are. The monkey that is hanging on Porcelain’s was, for example. What happens is, in order to properly infiltrate they need to have a familiar look for you. And, from time to time, I send them with the real Warblers to watch and learn. The real ones don’t even notice.”

Rachel had no answer. 

“Well, if that's all, I have to ask you to come here, Munchkin.” 

“Why?” 

“I have invested a lot in you. Since you came here on your own, the least you could do is cooperate a little” she waved her hand, encouraging her to come closer to the central capsule, smiling with gentle coldness. “I promise I will not last long ... But your fiance probably will miss you. Or not. Maybe his pea brain will not digest it. We'll see.” 

Rachel grabbed the vest harder and felt the air catching in her throat. She was afraid, there was no doubt about it, but a movement before her reminded her who she was with. With the Doctor. 

She knew her for only a few hours. She didn’t know almost anything about her. 

If she had to believe the Doctor’s words, she was an Alien (an incredibly attractive alien, but ultimately alien after all). She had a spaceship shaped like a phone booth (bigger on the inside). She seemed to have a lot of knowledge. She could probably handle herself rather well with just her screwdriver. She wanted to save her. 

They had just met, but somehow the Doctor had made it a priority to save her and discover what was happening. 

And something in Rachel, a large part of her, trusted her blindly. She didn’t know her, but she knew she would come out of there alive. 

So she took a deep breath, conjured all the bravery she had , and turned to look at Sue, standing next to the Doctor, instead of hiding behind her. 

“Why me?”

“Oh, don’t think that it is because you have special skills or something. Simply put, you were the only one whose body accepted the particles without fally terminally ill.” 

“The only one?” asked the Doctor, frowning “You mean there were more subjects?” 

“Obviously. That’s why I said she was the only one who... Well, I will not repeat myself. And if you can't put two and two together, this whole thing is going to be very easy."

Rachel looked at the Doctor, who just had pursed her lips, looking at Sue with a raised eyebrow. 

“Well, _obviously_ ” she said, stressing the word, “you’ve used more than one subject. _Obviously_ , you’ve managed to make no one suspect of the deaths; so this project has been going on for some time... Although it depends on how many you’ve used.”

“Nine. Streisand here will be number ten.” 

“What I don’t understand is the goal” she said, taking the journal from inside her vest. Rachel had not even noticed she had taken it. Mrs. Sylvester's eyes narrowed. “You are not very clear on this pile of nonsense.” 

That said, she threw the journal for Sue to catch it, but she just moved away. The book bounced off the head of a Warbler, who didn’t seem to notice. 

“This is when I should say I will not fall into the classic trap of the villains who reveal their plans and then lose badly, but... What the hell. My plans are worthy of being heard, and you can’t escape without me noticing... "

A touch on her left wrist distracted Rachel and almost made her jump, but when she turned she saw it was Finn, who was wide-eyed and had brought a finger to his lips, signaling to keep quiet. 

She had forgotten him. 

Again. 

Without saying anything, he began to tug at her. 

“Finn!” whispered Rachel “What are you doing?” 

“What the Doctor doesn’t seem to want to do. Saving your life.” 

The surprise almost made Rachel stumble. Her fiancé didn’t seem to notice and continued pulling at her. The grip on her wrist was firm. 

“Finn” she repeated “We cannot leave! Mrs. Sylvester...!” 

Finn gestured with one hand to stop talking so loudly and leaned towards her, still walking backwards, slowly, keeping his hold on her wrist and with his eyes fixed on the exchange they were leaving behind. Rachel was looking in that direction as well, checking if the Doctor had noticed her absence and also scared that Sue would notice and accelerate her plans. 

“... She’s not paying attention. If we stay here listening to her craziness, she’ll have the chance to catch you when she finishes. But now she is distracted so let's take the golf cart, going back to the hatch and forget that anything ever... "

Finn shut up abruptly and Rachel turned to him, noting how he had finally released her. The boy looked back at her puzzled, frowned, and fell face first. Rachel gasped and saw one of the Warblers, seemingly out of nowhere with his arm raised and fist clenched. Rachel assumed that he had knocked out Finn and prayed for being nothing serious while other two androids grabbed her under her arms, and returned her to Sue, who looked at her with an entertained smile.

“If you had paid attention you would have heard when I said that there is no way out of here without me knowing. Or without the room knowing. Now, cooperate and come here.”

Rachel tried to pull away, but the smiling guys that held her didn’t seem to even bulge. She turned her head and saw the Doctor, screwdriver in hand, apparently disabling one of the androids. 

“You!” shouted Sue “Drop that thing and be a good player or things will end badly.” 

The Doctor dropped the screwdriver and immediately another pair of Warblers caught her just like Rachel. She looked at her host, who turned to Rachel. 

“Don’t be sad.” she said. "Thanks to me you’ll get to be something in life.” Rachel snorted offended. “What? Let's be realistic.” 

“I don’t even know what you want to do to me.” 

“I'm going to use this machine right here” she explained, patting the central booth “to convert the particles in your body into energy and store it.” 

“So... You're just going to use the particles? Then why... ?” 

“Because it will kill you. These particles are energy, and that machine will absorb all the energy from your body.” said the Doctor, with a somber expression on her face. “Even if you survive, that thing will erase everything you are.” 

Rachel did not let that affect her and turned quickly to Mrs. Sylvester. 

“But why?” she snapped, without stopping in her struggle. 

“Now, that actually is in my journal.” 

“DNA of a champion” murmured the Doctor. 

“Exactly. I'll change her genetics and her mind. I will create the eternal champions. They’ll win any competition and get me anything I want.” 

“The cheerleader I've seen in that file?” she took Sue’s smile as a yes "...But, do they even know?"

“Oh, no. Not everyone volunteers for these things. I'm sure your fiancé would volunteer with a simple lie and...” she raised her arm towards Finn and seemed to realize he was unconscious “Oh. It’s not fun to mess with him if he’s not awake. Oh well.” she turned to Rachel. “I'll put a sedative in their smoothies and I’ll make the androids bring them to me. Easy. And when they leave this place they will be much more obedient and superior in every aspect.”

“Can’t you use the androids for your purposes?”

“No. They break easily. And now, if you’ve stopped wasting my time...”

“Just one thing,” interrupted the Doctor “where did you get this technology?” 

Sue closed her eyes, breathed deeply through her nose and seemed to count to ten. When she returned her gaze to the Doctor, she radiated irritation. 

“I mean, you're human... And not in a million years you would have developed this technology. Literally. I do not remember exactly which race it belongs to but...” 

“It’s alien. It was here when I discovered this place. And the androids too. Now,” she gestured to the Warblers and they began to drag Rachel into the capsule, while she tried to resist with more energy. 

But it was useless. The androids put her in the booth and the door closed automatically. 

Through the glass, she saw Sue smiling as she moved to the opposite side of the buttons that controlled the androids. The machine began to hum and Rachel started kicking and hitting the glass, without seeming to affect it in the very least. 

Her skin began to glow. She felt the familiar burning. So that was the end of her story? Before it even started? It couldn’t be. She had endured and worked too hard and lived too little for her life to end this way. She had not yet conquered Broadway and got at least three Tony Awards and one of each of the other awards. I could not end this way. 

She spun around, looking for any gaps in the surrounding metal to put her fingers in, her hand or whatever and break wires and save herself, but it was no use. Everything was perfectly smooth metal. And the glass was apparently indestructible. 

Suddenly tired and desperate, she glanced out and saw that the Doctor had managed to rise the screwdriver so she could disable one of the Warblers surrounding her, freeing one her arms to stop the other. Or so it seemed, but she kept the screwdriver focused on its face without deactivating android. It didn’t work? No. She was controlling it. Now the Warbler had started running in the Sue’s direction, tackling the woman and her throwing her over the control panel. 

Rachel heard a horrible noise, and then all was silent. No hum, no noise from machinery failing miserably... Nothing. Her skin had stopped glowing and she didn’t feel so weak anymore. She closed her eyes and breathed deeply. 

She opened them when she heard a sound in front of her and saw the capsule’s door opening thanks to the Doctor. Or her screwdriver. 

The Doctor turned and assessed the situation. The droids had not moved to defend their owner, who seemed to have taken a blow to the head and laid unconscious under the Warbler that had tackled her. She looked at Finn, who hadn’t moved. Finally, she looked at Rachel. 

“I think everything turned out well, right?” she said. 

Rachel wanted to add something, but the stress of the day (the competition, the wedding, aliens, near death experience) finally made an appearance and almost made her faint. She sat on the first stool she found and put a hand to her chest, breathing deeply. 

“Are you okay?” her companion asked. Rachel nodded wordlessly, trying to pass the sudden dizziness.

“What now?”

“Now? Well I will...” she touched a few keys on the control panel levers that controlled the Warblers and turned to the one who was closest to ger “Take her” he ordered, pointing to Sue “and put her there” she pointed to the booth.

They did what they were told and left the unconcious Sue locked inside the booth. 

Rachel looked at the Doctor confused. 

“Just in case” she said, shrugging. “And now I will destroy this lab.” 

Rachel opened her mouth to respond, surprised, when a noise from the booth caught her attention. Sue was awake and shouting, hitting the glass. 

“W—...? But... Why? What about her?” 

“Because,” she said, as she walked across the room investigating the various controls “this technology is dangerous. It's best for humanity. And she... She can stay here and think about what she has done.”

Rachel looked at Mrs. Sylvester, shouting angrily to them to let her out (although the glass drowned her screams) and then to the Doctor. 

“No.” 

“Huh?” 

“I said no. How can you do that?”

The Doctor pursed her lips. 

“She tried to kill you. She’s dangerous.” 

“If you take this technology from her she can’t do anything. There is no reason to kill her.”

The Doctor looked at her for a long moment. Rachel fumbled with her dress, uneasy under her intense gaze. 

Finally, the Doctor sighed and walked over to Rachel, who stood up. When she was close to her, she began to lean towards her and Rachel froze, wondering what the hell the Doctor intended to do. But, when she was a few inches from her face she straightened, showing that she only wanted to take the stool that Rachel had just used. 

With a smirk, she shrugged her shoulder and headed for the booth. She used her screwdriver into the glass facing Sue's head and then, hit it hard with the metal stool. There was a hole now that could only fit a head. 

“Very well, coach” said the Doctor seriously “I will make this room overload and explode in exactly ten minutes. I will program this door to open in eight minutes. I hope that's enough time for you to leave using the same door you came from.” 

Sue was silent, defeated but still hinting his anger through her eyes. The Doctor nodded and made two Warblers lift an unconscious Finn and get him out of the room. Then she started pressing buttons here and there, and use her screwdriver on some wires. She paused with her hand on a small black key and turned slightly to Sue. 

“And if you intend to abort the explosion... I've made sure you can’t. So if I were you I would focus on getting out.”

That said, pressed the button and dragged Rachel out. They saw that the androids Finn had placed in the back seat of the cart and now were returning into the room. They got into the vehicle and drove off as fast as they could. 

They were silent during the journey back until they heard the explosion, which thankfully they had left behind enough as to not affect them. The tunnel structure seemed stable so it didn’t even tremble, which was what Rachel feared. In addition, the noise seemed to wake Finn, who grunted grabbing his head. 

“What the ...?”

Rachel turned in the passenger seat and put her hand on the boy's cheek. 

“Finn, how are you?”

“Uh...”

Rachel turned to look ahead, turning her head slightly to address him. 

“A Warbler knocked you out” she told him, answering the question he had not asked, but everything is okay now.” She smiled. “There's no danger anymore.”

Finn seemed to be quite confused, but since they were alive and back in the cart, he assumed that they didn’t have to worry anymore.

 

They reached the trapdoor after a journey that seemed to be longer than the first time around. Finn went first (somewhat unstable by the blow to the head), then Rachel aided by him, and finally the Doctor, who closed the hatch and secured it with the screwdriver. 

When she straightened, she found the couple looking at her expectantly. She looked from one to another for a moment, turned and walked away without saying anything, with Rachel and Finn following her. 

They headed towards the football field, where the TARDIS was waiting, repaired now. When they were ten meters away from it, the Doctor started walking with long strides, almost running. She opened the door and inspected the ship, sighing in relief. 

The sound of someone clearing their throat made her look back to Rachel, who was in front of her. Finn stood behind a few meters away.

“Well,” said the bride-, “are you leaving?” 

“Yes, I guess I should go.” 

There was an awkward silence. 

“Oh well,” sighed Rachel, extending a hand “it has been a pleasure to meet you, Doctor. I’ll include you in my memories, but I’ll tell the story as if it were a dream, so my fans don’t think I went crazy.” 

The Doctor chuckled while shaking her hand. With one last smile, she got into the TARDIS. 

Rachel didn’t want to say goodbye. The experience had been the most exciting of her life (not including the moments when gave everything on stage), and the Doctor seemed to be, by far, the most interesting person she had met (not including again Patti Lupone). She didn’t want to say goodbye, but there was nothing she could do to stop her, right? 

So Rachel watched sadly as the ship door closed slowly, almost in slow motion, feeling Finn's arm go around her shoulders. 

“Hey, Rach, why did she go into that box?” 

She ignored him and started preparing to leave when a hand appeared in the doorway of the TARDIS, followed by the Doctor. 

“Hey, you wanna come with me?” 

Rachel widened her eyes and felt her heart pounding. 

“B-but... Why...?”

“I don’t know” she answered with a smile. “I could use a companion. Someone with a good head on her shoulders.”

“Nonsense” Finn snorted, pressing the arm that was around Rachel while the Doctor crossed her arms and leaned against the doorway of the TARDIS, still looking to the girl. “She won’t go with you, right?”

Rachel didn’t know what to say. The Doctor seemed to be ignoring Finn and the boy was looking at her compelling, as if waiting for the obvious answer. 

“It's just... I have classes here, and competitions, my career and my friends...” 

“Did I not tell you...” said the Doctor casually, looking away into the wood and walking her fingers over it “... that the ship is also a time machine? We could leave and come back in five minutes.”

She widened her eyes again, and this time she also let out a big smile, to which the Doctor replied with another on her part. Rachel took a step toward the ship, with some resistance from Finn. 

“I should go get some clothes...” 

“I have tons in there. From every age.”

Rachel smiled and turned to Finn. 

“Finn,” she said hastily, removing her engagement ring, “sorry but... All of this has been crazy. You're a great guy, but I’m seventeen and...” 

“You're leaving me?” the boy muttered, frowning and pouting lips. 

“Yes... No! Well...” Shee looked back to the ship and Finn alternatively “Look, we'll talk when I get back, okay?”

She stroked his cheek and kissed it quickly, before running towards the ship and closing the door behind him. 

The Doctor looked at her with a smile. 

“Where to?” Rachel asked. 

“Wherever you want. We can go anywhere on this planet at any time you want” she went around the central part of the ship, approaching Rachel. “We can go to any planet. There is one in which the wind always sounds like music.” 

Rachel felt her heart beating even harder. She looked around, still not believing the opportunities she had in front of her. 

“Surprise me.”

 

Finn watched as a blue light bulb shone above the box that was supposedly a ship. He heard a strange noise, as if the machinery was drowning. And there, in the middle of the football field and holding an engagement ring in his hand, Finn saw a phone booth fading away.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I could seriously use some feedback about the translation. I've never done this before.

**Author's Note:**

> I was going to post it all in one go but as if turns out, I can't. I'll post the rest later.
> 
> I love constructive feedback, so don't hold back.


End file.
